I was hoping this one was going to be migrated over as it's ongoing. Ah well.

**The DREAM 18 New Year’s Eve card held early this morning from the Saitama Super Arena was a pretty fun show with a lot of quick finishes throughout the card. The team of Mauro Ranallo, Frank Shamrock and Stephen Quadros really stood out and you could tell just how excited the crew was to be back in Japan (this was Ranallo’s first trip back to Japan since leaving Pride in 2006). Here are the results from the DREAM portion of the card: *Will Brooks over Satoru Kitaoka by TKO in Round 2 – Brooks trains out of ATT and slammed Kitaoka at one point and was the stronger of the two. Kitaoka’s lower body resembled a mummy with how taped up he was. *Marloes Coenen over Fiona Muxlow by armbar in Round 1 – this was a last minute addition to the card late last week. Coenen is one of the top 145-pound fighters in the world and the only thing holding her back from entering the UFC is getting down to 135 and is also associated with Golden Glory, which has been on difficult terms with the UFC for a long time. Coenen secured a belly down armbar and Muxlow defended well but succumbed as Coenen got better position. *Hayato Sakurai over Phil Baroni by unanimous decision – Baroni looked good in the first two rounds but was spent by the end of the fight with the two wailing away at the close of the third round. Both are well into the twilight of their careers but Baroni continues to look good physically but is battling father time. *Melvin Manhoef over Denis Kang by KO in Round 1 – Manhoef connected with a knee to the body flush that sent Kang down and out with Manhoef nailing him with a brutal shot near or at the back of the head upon his landing. This was classic Melvin Manhoef where he looks like a killer that can cause problems for anyone when he wins in quick fashion. *Bibiano Fernandes over Yoshiro Maeda by triangle choke in Round 1 – This was a great fight for as short as it was with Fernandes getting his back, Maeda transitioning out and Fernandes getting it back, locking in the triangle and tightening the submission for the win. Fernandes nearly signed with the UFC earlier this year and was pencilled in for the UFC 149 card in Calgary but instead opted to sign with One FC for a lucrative amount of money. *Shinya Aoki over Antonio McKee by TKO in Round 2 – Aoki connected with a hard shot to the nose of McKee in the second and sent him into the ropes where he followed through with more punches and McKee was caught bad by the initial shot and led to the stoppage, this was about as exciting an Antonio McKee fight as you will see. *Georgi Karakhanyan over Hiroyuki Takaya by split decision – I thought the second round was the closest but Karakhanyan was the better striker. *Tatsuya Kawajiri over Michihiro Omigawa by unanimous decision – this was not a great fight with Kawajiri taking Omigawa down for three-rounds, using elbows and smothering him for the whole fight. Omigawa tried to work off his back but Kawajiri was more active and no question as to who would be awarded the decision but a weak fight. *Jerome LeBanner over Koichi in a kickboxing bout (three 2:00 rounds instead of the usual 3:00 rounds) – LeBanner outclassed Koichi for the first two rounds, Koichi landed a pair of shots in the third and then got blasted and put out with a beautiful right hand by LeBanner.

**The Inoki Bom-Ba-Ye event also took place early today featuring a mixture of professional wrestling and MMA fights on the card. The most notable MMA fights featured Mirko Cro Cop returning to action and stopping Wakakirin in 1:18 of the first round and 2008 Olympic gold medallist Satoshi Ishii defeated former UFC heavyweight Tim Sylvia by unanimous decision after three-rounds.

**The following $65,000 bonuses were handed out after the card: *Fight of the Night – Jim Miller Vs Joe Lauzon (no surprise) *Knockout of the Night – Todd Duffee *Submission of the Night – John Moraga

**Joe Lauzon needed 40 stitches in total for the various cuts he sustained during the fight including the nasty gash above his eye that was the major one.

**Dana White stated at the post fight press conference that Leonard Garcia would not be cut regardless of suffering his fourth straight loss in the UFC. On the Mike Goldberg situation he just said that Goldberg will be out for awhile and moved on. He said that Anderson Silva has just signed a new ten-fight deal with the UFC.

**Invicta FC was the latest company to be doomed by technical problems when graduating to iPPV with many people having problems ordering the show. During the card company president Shannon Knapp announced on Twitter that they were removing the pay wall and giving the card out for free due to the technical problems and would refund those that paid. It was interesting to see that a number of people replied stating that didn’t want their money back because of the quality of the fights and were less upset when the price tag was only $7.95 and it’s a company that has built up a goodwill among its audience since debuting last April (there is a lesson there).

**The UFC will be producing a three-part “Prime Time” series for UFC 157 featuring Ronda Rousey and Liz Carmouche. The series premieres February 8th at Midnight EST on FUEL TV in the U.S.

**The UFC 158 show on March 16th in Montreal continues to add Canadian content with the addition of John Makdessi Vs Daron Cruickshank in a lightweight bout and the UFC debut of Jordan Mein against Dan Miller (the younger brother of Dan Miller) in a welterweight fight. The UFC has also announced Nick Ring Vs Chris Camozzi on that card in middleweight action.

**Erick Silva is off of the UFC 156 card on February 2nd where he was set to fight Jay Hieron and taking his spot is Tyron Woodley, who is coming over from Strikeforce.

**Here are the main card results from Bellator 85 last night in Irvine, California and airing on Spike TV: *Pat Curran over Patricio “Pitbull” Freire by split decision (48-47, 47-48, 48-47) to keep the Featherweight Title *Mikhail Zayats over Renato Babalu Sobral by TKO at 4:49 of Round 1 to advance in the Light Heavyweight tournament *Michael Chandler over Rick Hawn by rear-naked choke at 3:07 of Round 2 to keep the Lightweight Title *Jacob Noe over Seth Petruzelli by TKO at 2:51 of Round 1 to advance in the Light Heavyweight tournament

**Next week’s Bellator card will feature Welterweight champion Ben Askren defending his title against Karl Amoussou along with the promotional debut of Muhammad “King Mo” Lawal against Przemyslaw Mysiala in the Light Heavyweight tournament along with the four opening round fights for the welterweight tournament.

**Here is the card for the UFC on FX 7 event tomorrow night in Sao Paulo, Brazil with the weigh-in results in parenthesis:

**Bellator has announced that the delayed Lightweight tournament finals from Season 7 between Dave Jansen will take on Marcin Held March 7th.

**Mike Chiappetta from MMAFighting.com reported today that Dennis Siver has been forced to pull out of the UFC on FUEL 7 card on February 16th in London, England. The UFC has announced that Dustin Poirier will take his spot against Cub Swanson, which sounds like a hell of a fight on paper and could create the new Featherweight Title challenger.

**Among those absent from the list include: Josh Barnett (who will be an interesting one to watch), Keith Jardine, Adlan Amagov, Billy Evangelista, Ovince St-Preux, Jorge Masvidal, Justin Wilcox and Rafael Cavalcante (who is currently serving a suspension).

**They also announced on UFC Tonight that beginning January 29th Chael Sonnen would become a permanent member of the desk panel on the show.

**ESPN was the first to report that a welterweight bout between Dan Hardy and Matt Brown has been added to the UFC on FOX 7 card April 20th in San Jose, California. On Tuesday the UFC officially announced the top two fights for the card with Benson Henderson defending the Lightweight Title against Gilbert Melendez and a heavyweight bout between Daniel Cormier and Frank Mir.

**ESPN out of the U.K. has announced they will be carrying the upcoming season of TUF featuring coaches Jon Jones and Chael Sonnen. The series premieres next Tuesday night at 8pm EST on FX and FX Canada.

**Fight Network in Canada announced a five-year television deal with One FC today and will air their February 2nd card live from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia headlined by Honorio Banario Vs Eric Kelly for the One FC Featherweight Title.

**Here are the results from the UFC on FX 7 card on Saturday night in front of an announced crowd of 9,116 at the Ibirapuera Gymnasium in Sao Paulo, Brazil: *Francisco Trinaldo over C.J. Keith by arm-triangle choke at 1:50 of Round 2 *Ildemar Alcantara over Wagner Prado by kneebar at 2:39 of Round 1 *Yuri Alcantara and Pedro Nobre fought to a no contest after referee Dan Miragliotta stopped the fight after a forearm to the back of Nobre’s head *Edson Barboza over Lucas Martins by submission due to strikes at 2:38 of Round 1 *Nik Lentz over Diego Nunes by unanimous decision (30-28, 30-27, 30-26) *Ronny Markes over Andrew Craig by unanimous decision (29-28 all) *Godofredo “Pepey” Castro over Milton Viera by split decision (29-28, 28-29, 29-28) *Khabib Nurmagomedov over Thiago Tavares by TKO at 1:55 of Round 1 *Gabriel Gonzaga over Ben Rothwell by guillotine choke at 1:01 of Round 2 *C.B. Dollaway over Daniel Sarafian by split decision (29-28, 28-29, 29-28) *Vitor Belfort over Michael Bisping by TKO at 1:27 of Round 2

**Here are the recipients of the $50,000 bonuses handed out after the event: *Fight of the Night – C.B. Dollaway Vs Daniel Sarafian *Knockout of the Night – Vitor Belfort *Submission of the Night – Ildemar Alcantara

**During his post fight promo Vitor Belfort called Chael Sonnen a “clown” and told the UFC to send Sonnen home and allow him to have a rematch with Jon Jones (right after winning a middleweight fight with Anderson Silva sitting in the crowd and having no obvious challenger). Sonnen responded on the post show that he accepted Belfort’s challenge but he has to get rid of Jon Jones first and told Belfort he would be happy to assist in his travel for Belfort to meet Jesus.

**UFC president Dana White was not in Sao Paulo due to his recent ear operation but was tweeting throughout the card and was furious with official Dan Miragliotta for his stoppage of the Yuri Alcantara Vs Pedro Nobre fight and his late stoppage of the Khabib Nurmagomedov Vs Thiago Tavares fight. A number of people were complaining about Miragliotta also stopping the Belfort Vs Bisping fight too early but White defended the stoppage and said if it was an early stoppage Bisping would have complained about it and he didn’t in his post fight interview.

**The middleweight division is now wide open with Bisping knocked off as the #1 contender for the next fight against Anderson Silva. Here are the most likely candidates: *Hector Lombard – fighting Yushin Okami on March 3rd in Japan and probably benefits the most from the Bisping loss because timing wise it would out well if he beats Okami and could fight Silva in the summer. I don’t see Okami getting a rematch with Silva no matter how good he looks at this point. *Chris Weidman – he is targeting a May return from shoulder surgery and Silva had already been cold on the idea of fighting Weidman because of his lack of drawing power and is probably a fight away from a title shot. *Luke Rockhold – He has the same issue as Weidman where not a lot of people know him and Silva is going to be selective in choosing fights but Rockhold certainly is in a better spot today with Bisping out. *Vitor Belfort – another rematch that is a hard sell because their February 2011 was so definitive with Silva stopping him. *Costa Philippou – just beat Tim Boetsch and Rockhold has said he wants to fight Philippou, which is the likely fight to make next and winner of that fight could be propelled near the top. *Dan Henderson – this my “wild card” pick where if Henderson beats Lyoto Machida on February 2nd and Jones gets past Chael Sonnen in April and they want to give Daniel Cormier the shot at Jones in the fall so rather than pass over Henderson yet again they give him a title shot against Silva and that could be the summer fight for the middleweight title.

**The UFC has announced that they hold their UFC on FUEL 9 card in Stockholm, Sweden on April 6th (the night before WrestleMania 29) headlined by Alexander Gustafsson Vs Gegard Mousasi. It is the UFC’s second card in Sweden after holding a FUEL card there last April.

**At the start of the UFC press conference yesterday in Chicago it was announced by UFC president Dana White that former two-time welterweight champion Matt Hughes was retiring from the sport and being brought into the company as their new Vice-President of Athlete Development and Government Affairs. Hughes had not fought since September 2011 at UFC 135 with losses to Josh Koscheck and BJ Penn in his final two fights. Hughes was one of the key building blocks for the company during their rabid rise to popularity in 2005 and becoming a draw for the company after coaching the second season of the “Ultimate Fighter” reality show opposite Rich Franklin. Hughes first fought for the UFC in June 2000 at UFC 26 defeating Marcelo Aguiar, returning at UFC 29 where he was defeated by Dennis Hallman and then leaving for almost two-years and returning at UFC 34 in November 2001 and defeating Carlos Newton for the welterweight title. Hughes first reign as champion lasted until January 2004 when he was submitted by BJ Penn and Penn would leave the company for an offer from K-1 and was stripped of the title and ended back with Hughes after Hughes submitted Georges St-Pierre in their first fight together in November 2004 and held it for two-years before St-Pierre got a rematch and defeated Hughes at UFC 65 in November 2006. As a drawing card his biggest feat came at UFC 60 in May 2006 when it was a classic “Old Vs Young” storyline where he fought Royce Gracie in a catch weight bout with people believing the legendary Gracie could return and beat their top welterweight. The show drew 600,000 buys on pay-per-view and at the time was the highest number the UFC had ever done (the record would be broke a short two-months later at UFC 61 by Tito Ortiz and Ken Shamrock). Hughes would fight St-Pierre for a third and final time in December 2007 when then-champion Matt Serra had to pull out of his scheduled title defence against Hughes and St-Pierre was a late replacement and bested Hughes and would then win the title from Serra in April 2008 and remains champion to this day. Following the third St-Pierre fight Hughes was out of the title picture and served an attraction fighter and defeated Matt Serra, Renzo Gracie and Ricardo Almeida consecutively before the losses the Penn and Koscheck. Hughes was inducted into the UFC Hall of Fame in May of 2010.

**The UFC will be establishing a code of conduct list for all of their fighters and Hughes will be involved in establishing the code.

**It’s a busy week for the Roufusport crew as they had Ben Askren fighting last night with Bellator and then Anthony Pettis and Erik Koch fighting on Saturday night on FOX. The Jackson MMA crew has John Dodson, Donald Cerrone and Clay Guida fighting on the FOX card on Saturday night.

**The UFC on FOX 6 card drew an announced crowd of 16,091 at the United Center Sat night in Chicago, Illinois and a live gate of $1,270,000 and here are the results from the show: *David Mitchell over Simeon Thoresen by unanimous decision (30-27 all) *Rafael Natal over Sean Spencer by arm-triangle choke at 2:13 of Round 3 *Shawn Jordan over Mike Russow by TKO at 3:48 of Round 2 *Ryan Bader over Vladimir Matyushenko by guillotine choke at 0:50 of Round 1 *Pascal Krauss over Mike Stumpf by unanimous decision (30-27 all) *Clay Guida over Hatsu Hioki by split decision (30-27, 28-29, 29-28) *T.J. Grant over Matt Wiman by KO at 4:51 of Round 1 *Ricardo Lamas over Erik Koch by TKO at 2:32 of Round 2 *Anthony Pettis over Donald Cerrone by TKO at 2:35 of Round 1 *Glover Teixeira over Quinton Jackson by unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 29-28) *Demetrious Johnson over John Dodson by unanimous decision (49-46, 48-47, 48-47) to keep the flyweight title

**The following $50,000 bonuses were handed out after the show Saturday night: *Fight of the Night – Demetrious Johnson Vs John Dodson *Knockout of the Night – Anthony Pettis *Submission of the Night – Ryan Bader

**UFC president Dana White shared a story with the media after the FOX card involving Brock Lesnar. White stated that he met with Lesnar twice last spring (if you recall he appeared cage side at UFC 146 in May and the WWE was pissed because they had no idea he was going while under contract to the WWE). White proposed a Cowboys Stadium card where Lesnar would fight Fedor Emelianenko with both men coming out of retirement for the fight. Later that summer Emelianenko’s father died and he told White he would never fight again and Lesnar was only willing to come out of retirement for that fight and the deal died. Lesnar’s contract with the WWE expires in a few months and they certainly want to retain Lesnar after the noticeably boosts he provided for Extreme Rules and SummerSlam in 2012.

**At the post fight press conference Dana White said that Anthony Pettis would be next in line for the lightweight title after the Benson Henderson Vs Gilbert Melendez fight on April 20th. Pettis said if the title shot is guaranteed than he will wait for the winner rather than take another fight in the interim. Pettis was promised a title shot after the WEC folded and he was brought in but opted to take a fight with Clay Guida in June 2011, lost the fight and the title shot and learned a lesson from that decision. If everything lines up the optimal fight is a rematch between Henderson and Pettis with the potential to create one of the best UFC commercials ever to sell a fight and on top of that you will have three FOX fights under their belts and with that exposure I would certainly put that fight on pay-per-view as a headline fight and see what the two can draw.

**Bellator’s third week on Spike TV averaged 705,000 viewers and was their third week of decline but given the line up for this week’s show with no hook I would be very happy with the number this week.

**All the main card fights were quarterfinals for the lightweight tournament with the following semi-final fights locked: *David Rickels Vs Alexander Sarnavskiy *Saad Awad Vs Will Brooks

**For those that missed the Bellator card you need to go out of your way to see the pre-fight video for Will Brooks discussing his recently deceased adopted mother, who died of cancer. They aired the video and showed his adopted father in the audience crying after the video followed by Brooks defeating Ricardo Tirloni and then breaking down during the post-fight interview with Jimmy Smith and was one of the most emotional post fight interviews I have ever seen. On a lighter side was Lloyd Woodard’s pre-fight video, which was so awesome describing his last fight where his girlfriend “Adrian” was at cage side and showed how happy she was he won and thought this would be the typical pre-fight video and then Woodard announced she dumped him two-days later and hooked up with a new guy right after that, has a new girlfriend and then thanked “Jesus and shit” – this is a must see video but unfortunately Woodard lost a unanimous decision to David Rickels.

**The UFC has announced a partnership with Fight Metric to create an official set of rankings for the first time in company history. UFC president Dana White announced that there will be lists compiled by 90 members of the MMA media for all weight divisions and pound for pound rankings in an effort to make the sport easier to follow to those new to the sport. White has stated this will not dictate matchmaking but simply a tool for new fans of the UFC to follow it more easily. I only see this as being added fuel to anger people when a top guy is passed over for a fight that make more business sense and the UFC has to appeal to both arguments when conducting matchmaking.

**The final number for this past Saturday’s UFC on FOX 6 card was a huge success and even more impressive to me than the December number because of the unknown in Demetrious Johnson Vs John Dodson put in the main event slot. The show finished with a 2.4 rating and averaged 4,200,000 with the main event averaging 5,200,000. The card also dominated in the Male 18-49 demographic with a 2.1, which was the highest of any network in that key demographic. This marks two solid television numbers for the UFC to start off 2013 with the FX 7 card doing surprisingly well for the Vitor Belfort Vs Michael Bisping headlined card, which averaged 1,900,000 viewers and was the highest rated UFC card on FX to date.

**Loretta Hunt of SI.com was the first to report that Viacom has signed a partnership deal with Randy Couture and will officially be announced next Tuesday on a conference call. Part of the deal includes Couture coaching on the first season of Bellator’s reality show that will premiere later this year.

**A lightweight fight between Nate Diaz and Josh Thomson has been added to the April 20th UFC on FOX 7 card set for San Jose, California at the HP Pavilion. It will almost be a full year between fights for Thomson, who last fought in May 2012 with a split decision loss to Gilbert Melendez while both were in Strikeforce.

**ESPN reported this week that Michael Bisping will be back in action on April 27th in the co-feature of UFC 159 against Alan Belcher. Both middleweights are coming off of losses with Belcher dropping a decision to Yushin Okami at UFC 155 in December and Bisping suffering a TKO loss to Vitor Belfort earlier this month in Sao Paulo, Brazil. The main event of UFC 159 features Jon Jones defending the light heavyweight title against Chael Sonnen. The UFC has also announced that Cheick Kongo will fight Roy Nelson on the main card along with a lightweight fight between Jim Miller and Strikeforce import Pat Healy and a light heavyweight bout between Vinny Magalhaes and Phil Davis has also been signed for the April 27th event.

**Bellator has announced that their February 21st card from Salt Lake City, Utah will feature the semi-finals of the light heavyweight tournament with Muhammed “King Mo” Lawal taking on Emmanuel Newton along with the finals of last season’s featherweight tournament as Rad Martinez meets Shahbulat Shamhalaev and the winner will get to fight current champion Pat Curran later this year.

**Dave Meltzer has a great piece on the MMA Fighting website breaking down the pay-per-view business of 2012 for professional wrestling, MMA and Boxing and throws a curve ball to the “pay-per-view business is changing” argument TNA provided for their recent format changes.

**UFC lightweight Bobby Green celebrated his win over Jacob Volkmann sat night by leaning his head down as Bruce Buffer announced him as the winner and then shot his head up and spit out the water in his mouth in a direct copy of Triple H’s entrance.

**Here are the complete results from UFC 156 at the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas, Nevada in front of an announced crowd of 10,275 and a live gate of $2,437,000: *Francisco Rivera over Edwin Figueroa by TKO at 4:20 of Round 2 *Dustin Kimura over Chico Camus by rear-naked choke at 1:50 of Round 3 *Isaac Vallie-Flagg over Yves Edwards by split decision (29-28, 28-29, 29-28) *Bobby Green over Jacob Volkmann by rear-naked choke at 4:35 of Round 3 *Tyron Woodley over Jay Hieron by KO at 0:36 of Round 1 *Evan Dunham over Gleison Tibau by split decision (29-28, 28-29, 29-28) *Joseph Benavidez over Ian McCall by unanimous decision (29-28 all) *Demian Maia over Jon Fitch by unanimous decision (30-27 all) *Antonio Silva over Alistair Overeem by TKO at 0:25 of Round 3 *Antonio Rogerio Nogueira over Rashad Evans by split decision (29-28, 28-29, 29-28) *Jose Aldo over Frankie Edgar by unanimous decision (49-46, 49-36, 48-47) to retain the featherweight title

**The following $50,000 bonuses were handed out after the show: *Fight of the Night – Jose Aldo Vs Frankie Edgar *Knockout of the Night – Antonio Silva (narrowly edging past Tyron Woodley for the bonus) *Submission of the Night – Bobby Green

**The UFC has one weekend off and then return on February 16th with the UFC on FUEL card from London, England, which is one of the most solid cards in recent memory, which is headlined by Renan Barao Vs Michael McDonald for the interim bantamweight title. The following weekend UFC 157 takes place on February 23rd from Anaheim with the big Ronda Rousey Vs Liz Carmocuhe fight.

**UFC president Dana White stated at the post fight press conference that Anthony Pettis sent him a text message stating he wants to drop to featherweight and fight Jose Aldo right away rather than wait for the lightweight title shot later this year.

**There was an irregularity with a post fight drug test from the UFC on FX 7 card on January 19th in Sao Paulo, Brazil. The “a” sample came back irregular and they have tested the “b” sample (typically a formality in that if one sample shows a drug the other will as well) and will announce the result on Monday but Dana White did state it was not Vitor Belfort’s test in question. Belfort defeated Michael Bisping in the main event of that card last month.

**Bellator’s card on Thursday night averaged 807,000 viewers featuring the middleweight title fight between Alexander Shlemenko and Maiquel Falcao along with the quarterfinals of the featherweight tournament.

**A middleweight bout between Francis Carmont and Lorenz Larkin has been announced for the undercard of the UFC on FOX 7 event on April 20th in San Jose, California.

**The UFC has added a light heavyweight bout between former Strikeforce fighters Gian Villante and Ovince St. Preux to the UFC 159 card on April 27th in Newark, New Jersey underneath the Jon Jones vs. Chael Sonnen light heavyweight title fight.

**The UFC has revealed that the failed drug test from the UFC on FX 7 event in Sao Paulo, Brazil belonged to lightweight Thiago Tavares, who tested positive for Drostanolone. Tavares was stopped by Khabib Nurmagomedov on the show so the result of the fight will not change and Tavares will be put on the sidelines for nine-months and needs to pass a drug test for reinstatement.

**The UFC also released information that UFC on FX 7 headliner Vitor Belfort was granted a therapeutic use exemption for testosterone replacement therapy after he was diagnosed with hypogonadism (the same medical issue Chael Sonnen was diagnosed with) and was granted a TUE by the UFC. Belfort is the first UFC fighter to be granted a TUE with a drug test suspension on his record after testing positive for elevated levels of testosterone in his October 2006 loss to Dan Henderson in Las Vegas at Pride 32.

**On Tuesday Spike TV held a press conference in Santa Monica, California to introduce Randy Couture, Frank Shamrock, Joe Warren and Greg Jackson as the coaches for their upcoming reality show “Fight Master”. The Bellator series will debut this summer with an all welterweight season with a berth in a future welterweight tournament and $100,000 to the winner. They are pushing the strategy aspect very hard with fighters being able to pick who coaches them and their opponents throughout the season. Spike TV also announced a second show called “MMA Rescue” where Randy Couture will visit struggling MMA gyms and offer business advice. The series will begin shooting very soon as Couture has to wrap by March where he will be will filming a movie and then will be shooting The Expendable 3 later this summer.

**After making the request Anthony Pettis will be granted a featherweight title shot against Jose Aldo Jr. will a targeted date of August 3rd for the two to fight. It is unknown if this will be a FOX special or a pay-per-view.

**Sean Pierson has pulled out of UFC 158 where he was scheduled to fight Rick Story on the March 16th card in Montreal. Former Strikeforce fighter Quinn Mulhern will take the spot of Pierson and rides a three-fight win streak into the fight.

**Bellator has announced that Pat Curran will defend his featherweight title against Daniel Strauss on April 4th in Atlantic City, New Jersey on the finale of their eighth season.

**Brent Weedman has been forced to pull out of the Bellator welterweight semi-finals that will take place on February 21st. Bryan Baker will be taking the spot of Weedman to fight Douglas Lima in the semi-finals with Ben Saunders and Raul Amaya on the other side of the bracket fighting on the same night in Salt Lake City, Utah and airing on Spike TV. Baker has made it to the finals in both the middleweight and welterweight tournaments in Bellator coming up short in both cases including to Karl Amoussou in the finals of the welterweight tournament last July.

**Glory Sports International has named Andrew Whittaker as their new global C.E.O. Whittaker previously worked for the WWE as the head of their international division and was responsible for dramatic growth in that department and a key reason their pay-per-view model remains as viable it is with the opening up of so many non-domestic markets.

**This weekend the UFC Prime Time series focusing on Ronda Rousey and Liz Carmouche debuts and will be premiering on Fight Network this Sunday at 12:30pm EST. This will be a three-part series leading up to their February 23rd fight at UFC 157 in Anaheim, California.

**Bruce Buffer will be releasing his autobiography entitled “It’s Time” on May 14th through Random House Publishing.

**Tito Ortiz appeared on “Inside MMA” last week and has instructed his client Cristiane “Cyborg” Santos to ask for a release from her Zuffa contract. Santos had fights remaining on her Strikeforce deal and were absorbed when Strikeforce went out of business by the UFC. Santos has stated she can cut down to 140-pounds but cannot make 135-pounds for the fight with Ronda Rousey and the two sides remain at an impasse.

**Due to Manny Gamburyan having to pull out of the February 23rd UFC 157 card in Anaheim it has left featherweight Chad Mendes without an opponent and will not be competing on the card any longer. As a result the heavyweight bout between Lavar Johnson and Brendan Schaub has been promoted to the main card. Mendes suggested on Twitter that Ricardo Lamas take the fight but Lamas responded stating he just accepted a fight for May but has not been announced yet.

**The UFC has added a middleweight bout between Tom Lawlor and Michael Kuiper to the UFC on FUEL 9 card set for April 6th in Stockholm, Sweden. That card is headlined by Alexander Gustafsson vs. Gegard Mousasi.

**The TUF 17 Finale has been announced for Saturday April 13th in Las Vegas, Nevada at the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino headlined by heavyweights Travis Browne and Gabriel Gonzaga. The UFC has also announced that the second women’s fight in UFC history will take place on this card with Miesha Tate taking on Cat Zingano.

**Below are the three-parts to Dana White’s media scrum from London, England:

harsh words for Randy Couture here:

**On Tuesday night Ariel Helwani reported on UFC Tonight that the May 25th UFC 160 card in Las Vegas, Nevada over Memorial Day weekend will be headlined by Cain Velasquez defending the UFC heavyweight title against Antonio Silva with a co-feature between Alistair Overeem and Junior dos Santos. It was on Memorial Day weekend last year that Velasquez destroyed Silva at UFC 146 but since that time Silva has defeated Travis Browne and Overeem to earn the title shot.

**A middleweight bout between Vitor Belfort and Luke Rockhold is set for the spring will take place on May 18th in Jaragua do Sul in Brazil and will be the UFC on FX 8 card This will be Rockhold’s first fight in the UFC as the outgoing Strikeforce middleweight champion and not fought since July of last year where he defeated Tim Kennedy. Belfort is coming off a stoppage victory over Michael Bisping in January.

**For what it’s worth UFC president Dana White is stating that if Alexander Gustafsson defeats Gegard Mousasi on April 6th in Sweden that he would be next in line for the UFC light heavyweight champion (Jon Jones defends the title against Chael Sonnen on April 27th).

**With Manny Gamburyan injured and off the UFC 157 card on February 23rd the UFC has taken his opponent Chad Mendes and placed him on the undercard of the UFC on FOX 7 event on April 20th where he will take on “Mr. FOX Undercard” Clay Guida in San Jose, California. This will be the third FOX undercard Guida has been a part of.

**The April 13th Ultimate Fighter Season 17 Finale will be headlined by Demetrious Johnson facing off with John Moraga for the flyweight title in Las Vegas, Nevada. They have also announced a female bout between Miesha Tate and Cat Zingano for this card and a heavyweight bout between Gabriel Gonzaga and the returning Travis Browne.

**The UFC has announced that they have signed female bantamweights Alexis Davis and Sarah McMann, who had both been competing for Invicta FC. McMann is an Olympic silver medalist and presents a great storyline if she could get a title shot against Ronda Rousey and promote it as a battle of Olympic medalists. McMann has recently been training with both Marcelo Garcia and was also in Montreal training at Tristar.

**Invicta FC 5 has been announced for Friday April 5th in Kansas City, Missouri with two title fights headlining the show with Jessica Penne defending the 105-pound championship against Michelle Waterson and the first Invicta FC 125-pound champion will be crowned when Barb Honchak takes on Vanessa Porto. This is a real deep card with Sarah Kaufman fighting Leslie Smith, Amanda Nunes meets Kaitlin Young and Zoila Gurgel will take on Jennifer Maia among the fourteen fights already announced for the show.

**A major breakthrough in MMA getting into the state of New York could be on the horizon following a Wednesday hearing in the state between the Attorney General’s Office and Zuffa’s legal team. Both sides agreed at the hearing that third party sanctioning would allow the UFC to be able to run a card within the state while not violating the law that was passed in 1997 banning mixed martial arts from the state. Zuffa is going to await the legislative process in a few weeks because their ideal scenario is the 1997 law being overhauled but Zuffa lawyer Timothy Bellamy stated that if this is their only option to get in than they will take advantage of the third party sanctioning loophole. UFC president Dana White has stated he is confident they will run a show this year and has stated he has booked Madison Square Garden for their 20th anniversary show in November.

**FUEL TV just got a major clearance with Comcast picking up the network and will put them in 22-million more homes in the U.S. As of right FUEL was only in approximately 36-million homes so this is a major clearance for visibility.

**The official injury that Cyrille Diabate suffered this past weekend at the UFC on FUEL 7 event was a strained left calf muscle and not a tear. Diabate was unable to continue his fight with Jimi Manuwa after the opening round and the fight was stopped.

**There is a piece on Ronda Rousey in this week’s edition of TIME Magazine and was also featured on HBO Real Sports in a feature piece this weekend.

**UFC president Dana White revealed over the weekend that had Josh Barnett signed with the UFC they were planning to match him against Junior dos Santos but when they couldn’t reach a deal they put together the Dos Santos vs. Alistair Overeem fight for May 25th.

**Here are the main card results from Bellator’s card in West Valley City, Utah: *Ben Saunders over Raul Amaya by KO at 2:56 of Round 1 in the semi-finals of the welterweight tournament *Mikhail Zayats over Jacob Noe by armbar at 3:38 of Round 1 in the semi-finals of the light heavyweight tournament *Douglas Lima over Bryan Baker by KO at 2:34 of Round 1 in the semi-finals of the welterweight tournament *Emanuel Newton over Muhammed Lawal by KO at 2:35 of Round 1 in the semi-finals of the light heavyweight tournament *Shahbulat Shamhalaev over Rad Martinez by KO at 2:12 of Round 2 in the finals of the featherweight tournament

**Bellator averaged 737,000 viewers thurs night headlined by the finals of the featherweight tournament with Shahbulat Shamhalaev defeating Rad Martinez. If you missed the card it is worth checking out with two knockout of the year candidates with Emmanuel Newton stopping Muhammed “King Mo” Lawal with a spinning back fist and Ben Saunders stopping Raul Amaya with a head kick to advance to the finals of the welterweight tournament.

**UFC president Dana White announced that Cain Velasquez has signed a new eight-fight contract that replaces his old deal, which still had three fights remaining on it.

**It was announced on UFC Tonight Tuesday by Ariel Helwani that a light heavyweight bout between Ryan Bader and Glover Teixera and a lightweight bout between Donald Cerrone and KJ Noons has been added to the UFC 160 card on May 25th in Las Vegas, Nevada on Memorial Day weekend. The card is headlined by Cain Velasquez defending the heavyweight title against Antonio Silva.

**Rory MacDonald is out of the UFC 158 event on March 16th in Montreal, Quebec with his manager Lex McMahon telling Ariel Helwani that MacDonald suffered a neck injury and needs to rest for the next 3-4-weeks. This has resulted in a few changes on the main card with MacDonald’s original opponent Carlos Condit now scheduled to fight Johny Hendricks while Jake Ellenberger will now fight Nate Marquardt. The way the welterweight division is shaping up it seems like a lock that Hendricks would get the next title shot with a win over Condit but if he loses that could open the door to Demian Maia getting the next title shot. The card is headlined by champion Georges St-Pierre defending the title against Nick Diaz.

**The UFC on FUEL 7 card averaged 195,000 viewers this past Saturday for the live afternoon airing and averaged another 116,000 viewers for the prime time replay in the U.S.

**A featherweight bout between Steven Siler and Jimy Hettes has been added to the undercard of the UFC 159 event on April 27th in Newark, New Jersey.

**Shamhalaev will still have to wait for a featherweight title shot as Pat Curran has to first defend his title against Daniel Straus, which is scheduled for April 4th.

**Ariel Helwani of MMAFighting.com broke the news wednesday that the UFC has cut sixteen fighters with the biggest name being Jon Fitch among those cut with a full list of those listed below: *Jon Fitch – defeated Erick Silva last October at UFC 153 in perhaps the best performance of his career and earned the Fight of the Night bonus, he is coming off a one-sided loss to Demian Maia at UFC 156 and is the most controversial cut with a 14-3-1 record in the UFC and challenges for the welterweight title against Georges St-Pierre at UFC 87 in August 2008.*Paul Sass – a lightweight fighter, who is one of the most exciting submission grapplers to watch but is coming off two straight losses to Matt Wiman last September and this past weekend to Danny Castillo. *Jacob Volkmann – a lightweight with a 6-2 campaign at 155 since cutting down in 2010 and lost his last fight to Bobby Green earlier this month at UFC 156. *Jay Hieron – a welterweight, who was brought back to the UFC and lost a decision to Jake Ellenberger last October and was stopped in 0:36 by Tyrone Woodley at UFC 156. *Mike Stumpf – a welterweight who has lost three of his last four with consecutive losses to T.J. Waldburger and to Pascal Krauss in January on the undercard of the FOX card.*Mike Russow – a Chicago based heavyweight, who had one of the biggest comeback wins against Todd Duffee at UFC 114 in May 2010 but coming off losses to Fabricio Werdum last June and Shawn Jordan in January on the undercard of the FOX event. *Wagner Prado – Prado was 0-2 with a no contest after three fights in the UFC. He had a unique story as he was on a reality show in Brazil saying he wanted to be a MMA fighter and the Noguiera brothers brought him in to train. *Che Mills – a welterweight and was in a co-feature last April at UFC 145 against Rory MacDonald where he did well for the short time the fight was standing and dominated once MacDonald took him down. He fought this past weekend losing a split decision to Matthew Riddle featuring a bizarre 29-28 scorecard for Mills.*Terry Etim – a lightweight coming off two losses as he was the recipient of Edson Barboza’s wheel kick knockout of the year last January at UFC 142 and returned this past weekend dropping a decision to Renee Forte. *Simeon Thoresen – Debuted with win on first UFC card in Sweden last year and followed with losses to Seth Baczynski and David Mitchell. *C.J. Keith – Came into the lightweight division undefeated and lost to Ramsey Nijem last June and Francisco Trinaldo at the FX 7 card last month in Sao Paulo. *Motonobu Tezuka – a late replacement to fight Alex Caceres last November in China and lost a split decision and was given a second fight this past weekend where he lost to Vaughan Lee by unanimous decision. *Josh Grispi – Was once scheduled to challenge Jose Aldo for the featherweight title but got hurt and then lost four straight ending this past weekend with a loss to Andy Ogle. *Jorge Santiago – was cut by the UFC in 2010 and brought back to fight Gunnar Nelson this past weekend and lost by unanimous decision. *Ulysses Gomez – Came in as a potential contender in the new flyweight division but is gone after losing fights to John Moraga and Phil Harris and adding salt to the wound was learning of his release on Twitter. *Vladimir Matyushenko – first fought for the UFC back in 2001 and challenged then light heavyweight champion Tito Ortiz for the title at a replacement for Vitor Belfort at UFC 33. He returned in 2009 and posted a 4-3 campaign at 205 with losses in his last two to Alexander Gustafsson and Ryan Bader and was coming off a torn Achilles tendon injury for his last fight.

The cuts are more a reality of economics along with supply and demand. The UFC is massively over staffed right now when it comes to fighters under contract and for all the names you can probably throw out with the question “why is so and so still under contract and not one of these guys?” well chances are that person you named has a fight coming up and are probably on the chopping block if they lose their next fight. The UFC is expanding with the addition of the women’s bantamweight class and also giving all the fighters on the current season of TUF a fight at the end of the season and need to contract the roster. The UFC has 33 cards earmarked for 2013 and roughly 12 fights per show. Realistically Fitch is the one you can argue got shafted here but the other side of the coin is that he’s dangerous enough that he can knock off contenders and doesn’t serve a purpose from the business side when arguing with the sports purist who doesn’t understand how the #9 ranked welterweight has been released.